You are using an out-of-date version of the Internet Explorer web browser. For a better experience on our website, please use a different web browser or update your Internet Explorer to version 8 or higher. Click here for more information.

Beauty all around you with excellent instructors. Well paced walking and 4 course meals. I want to return! The airline never delivered my husband's suitcase but after 45 days and reporting our problem to the DOT we will be compensated.

This tour was outstanding.
First, the itinerary and learning parameters were very well planned. The tour also inspired the desire to learn more. Everything was brought to life by the excellent scholars.
Second, the hotel accommodations, restaurants, and other activities were exemplary. Our food was bountiful and delicious. The two special dinners — the Renaissance celebration and the farewell gala, were delightful.
Third, our tour guides, Barbara Gigi and Alessio Rosoldi, were extraordinary. People may not be aware of how difficult tour guides’ job is, and how many areas of responsibility they carry. Alessio and Barbara attended to all these areas throughout the tour. I will remember Alessio’s wry sense of humor and his skill in keeping us together in many ways. As for Barbara, I will keep her in my memory in a most special place. This remarkable woman brings grace and kindness together with extraordinary strength and competence — all with her wink of special humor. She was truly an inspiration.
My colleagues on this tour were the best, cheerful, appreciative, cooperative, and congenial in every way.
I have traveled widely, but this is my first Road Scholar adventure. It was the best ever, and I am grateful to everyone who helped to make this trip a learning experience and a joy.

The Best of Italy was awe-inspiring and stimulating with a wide variety of activities and experiences and great guides to enhance our understanding of all we saw and did. I would recommend this tour to anyone interested in the roots of our Western culture but also to anyone who appreciates beauty, history, and a plethora of delightful experiences.

For a whirlwind tour of the cultural must see works of art this tour cannot be beat. It is fast paced with a lot of sites to visit. Our group leader,Professor Marco Ceccarini, was wonderful. His organizational skills are second to none, and he was always making sure that no"child was left behind!" His lectures were most informative, and his sense of humor was great. To be able to see Rome, Florence, and Venice for me is a dream come true. The hotels were great, and the meals we had were very good. The locations we stayed in each city were perfect. I cannot think of anything but wonderful, positive thoughts about this tour. A shout out to Maria Manzi who was very gracious and accessible to all in the group. Her presence lent a feminine touch to the tour. As for the tour guides, they were all well informed and made the tours of the various museums and sites come alive. In short, I speak for myself and my wife to say that this is a tour of a lifetime, and we are so glad we did it, and we appreciate all the efforts the Marco, Maria, and the tour guides put forth for us.

This is a great tour with its lectures and on site visits for the art and history in Italy. The amount of walking and stair climbing is arduous but definitely worth it. Food was great, and accommodations were in prime locations.

The Best of Italy was well organized, totally engaging, full of adventure. Teachers were extremely knowledgable, brought history, people, the arts to life. Food accommodations, transportation were more than adequate. Overall, the trip was thoroughly enjoyable. Loved our leaders!

My wife and I took Road Scholar's "The Best of Italy" tour in 2014. It was absolutely wonderful. I had visited Rome, Florence and Venice 50 years earlier but my wife had not and I had been "selling" it for decades. Turned out even better than I had hoped!

Italy beckons! Rome, albeit scaffolded, offers delights no other town can - The Vatican, the Sistine Chapel, all awe inspiring and worth battling the ensuing tortticollis . Plaza Navona is a reminder of relaxed, less hectic spaces where to take stock of one's surroundings. Florence is the star in my book: manageable in size, very pleasant locals and a general welcoming air that only smaller places can bestow on the visitors. Staring at the David compensates fighting the crowds. As for Venice- do not underestimate the power of sharing it with a loved one! The trip to Murano is not to be missed, as well as the sheer joy of being on the Grand Canal's steps overlooking your hotel balcony. Altogether a most charming and instructive experience. Try it! You won't regret it.

Road Scholar is so organized, employs such extremely knowledgeable and personable guides, that I couldn't have enjoyed my trip to Italy as much if I had gone on my own. Also, I found that the other people in my group who also chose Road Scholar were fun to be with and I made some true friends while in Italy.

Great program: we saw everything we even dreamed of seeing and then some. As usual with Road Scholar, very well managed with excellent speakers. Marco and Laura were efficient and worked hard keeping our group together (sometimes a difficult task, especially in the narrow crowded streets of Venice). Advice: extensive standing is necessary for this trip: I'd advise getting and wearing support hose. (I wish Road Scholar would add this to their trip info for all trips: harder for me and my husband to stand for prolonged time than to walk.) 2. All 3 cities were very crowded in October. 3. Breakfast coffee was awful in the 2 places that used machines. 4.We took clothes for warm and cool weather and wore both. This was an unbelievable experience that I'll remember forever.

This is a wonderful program, very well-designed and for the most part, well-executed. Bianca Obradovich is a great tour guide -- enormously knowledgeable, funny, resourceful, and extraordinarily patient even with the most demanding people in our group. The lecturers and on-site guides were also wonderful, and the choice of places to see is excellent. The three cities are sublime, each in its own way – and the program gave us free time to undertake our own expeditions. Bianca was a wonderful source of advice and gave great directions for those expeditions.
As to food and accommodations, I believe I speak for the great majority of our group in saying that the food ranged from good to outstanding, and that the Hotel Diana in Rome and the Hotel Rivoli in Florence have all the amenities of good hotels and very obliging staffs. True, Wifi access was spotty for some of us at the Diana and for some of us at the Rivoli, although others in the group had no problem getting Wifi at either hotel. The Hotel Belle Arti in Venice is badly-managed, its sparse staff was defensive, and none of us got Wifi there. Some rooms there were worse than others. But the mattresses, sheets and towels were okay, the hot water was plentiful, and for most of us, the hotel's deficiencies actually wound up as a subject of shared laughter. They certainly didn't spoil our great pleasure in Venice!

The leader, Bianca, was very good. The instructors/guides were excellent. The accomodations were very poor. None of the 3 hotels had reliable WiFi. Hotel Diana in Rome was shabby. The hot water was unreliable and the breakfast buffet was poorly presented. Hotel Rivoli in Florence had been remodeled in the last few years and the accomodations were what I anticipated as you represented it as a 4 star hotel. The restaurant was good and the breakfast buffet was nicely presented. Hotel Belle Arti was horrible. It was very shabby and dirty. There was mold in the bathroom of our room #102. The ceiling paint was pealing. The towels were so old and threadbare. The sheets and blankets were in similar condition. Several people in the group had bites all over their body. The hoteliers were discourteous and generally inhospitable. How could RoadScholar have booked such a bad hotel! I will email photos of the mold in the bathroom and the pealing paint in the bedroom. As far as the meals were concerned, they were fair to middling with the exception of one or two restaurants. We were often lead to a back room even though we requested to eat outside but that was not an option. The one time we sat outside was the restaurant that was opposite the public bathrooms! Not very thoughtful planning.

The guides were wonderful, especially Biaca Obradovic, who took such great care from start to finish. The food in Rome was very disappointing, accommodations were adequate. Florence was wonderful hotel with great food. We were not prepared for the Hotel Belle Arts in Venice. It was totally unacceptable to the point that I moved out the following morning and moved next door to more clean and acceptable accommodations. Roads Scholar should NEVER consider using this hotel in the future. The ceiling above my bed was moldy and peeling, the vent was missing on the a/c, leaving a gaping hole that I stuffed towels into to keep uninvited "visitors" out of my room. (This was not problem as the A/C was shut off for the season). The door looked as though it had been breached many times so that I put a chair under the knob for the night. I think we were promised a hotel on the Grand Canal but, since our group seemed to be an "add on", the Hotel Principe was not available to us. I expect better from Road Scholar and hope that I can trust them in the future.

This was a lovely trip and Laura, our guide, worked hard to make the experience excellent for everyone. The educational aspects were excellent. I would advise people to make sure they are able to manage the physical challenges of the trip, which do involve walking, stairs, and some uneven cobblestones.

Be prepared for very crowed conditions in Florence and Venice. The boat taxis in Venice, the vaporetto, are Extremely crowed.
The high speed train rides were great experiences; speeds up to 155 MPH.
The Road Scholar only visit to The Sistine Chapel was worth the Trip.

There is so much to learn, so much to see, so much to do and experience in Rome, Florence and Venice, I do believe it will take me years to "unpack" these 12 days. This is a trip that my husband and I will talk about for a long time and will enjoy reliving through our photos, conversations and visits with truly wonderful and gracious fellow-travelers who once were strangers but now are friends.

Rome, Florence, Venice - my goodness we saw a lot and learned more than I thought possible. Our lectures and guides were incredible as were our team leaders and the logistics from pick up to drop off was perfect. It was a bit more strenuous for me than I thought it would be but there were older people that found it easy so I guess I need to work out more. Our group got along really well and many of us will most definitely keep in touch.

This was my first Road Scholar trip and I found it to be supportive and organized. There was a daily flow of lectures, guided tours, suggestions for sight seeing, diversity in meals, with a feeling of continuity provided by our coordinators as we traveled safely through the three historic cities.

This tour was a wonderful introduction to the Best of Italy. The itinerary was perfect with a chance to savor each city, staying at nice hotels, eating wonderful food, & feeling well taken care of by our professore, Marco & his patient assistant, Barbara. The Hotel Rivoli in Florence is one of my all time favorites. We also have great memories of the Hotel Principe on the Grand Canal. This was an amazing adventure. Thank you, Road Scholar for all the background work to put it all together. We spent 4 days in Milan on our own after the tour & could really appreciate the work of RS. We needed Marco & Barbara!

Rome, Florence, Venice plus, what more can we say. The places, the food, the people, the aroma, the taste of coffee, new hotels, side streets, churches, shopping, wonderfully informed tour guides at all cities and museums…and to bring it all together was our Group Leader Marco Ceccarani and Barbara Gigi. Marco's ability to take us all to a better understanding of the heart and soul of Italy in every place we visited makes all the difference in our full understanding of our trip.

If you want a thorough grounding in Italian art and culture, beginning with the Roman classics then traversing through the Renaissance and baroque eras, this program is for you. Unbelievable artistry and sculpture await you plus exciting extras like a Renaissance dinner with dancing and games, as well as a gondola ride. This is a winner!

Imagine those college History classes you had when you were 20 and slept through or those museums you walked through in 15 minutes, checked off your bucket list and promptly forgot what you had seen. Now imagine you are standing in front of the statue of David listening to an engaging, informative and humorous college professor walk you around the statue for 30 minutes giving you the history, details, and background that makes the art come alive. Stand on the floor of the empty Sistine Chapel (yes empty) and look up while another professor does the same. You will never look at these works the same way again. That's what Road Scholar did with exceptional speakers for an exciting 14 days in Rome, Florence and Venice. It's a trip we will never forget. I just wish i had the words to better express the opportunities provided by this trip.

William from New York, NYNumber of programs attended: 4Date attended: 03/16/14 - 03/29/14

This trip was a great first trip to Italy. March was a great time to do this trip; the weather was perfect; the crowds were less than much of the prime seasons; Italy in the early spring was delightful.

This experience was extremely good. The trip provided a great introduction to the history and art associated with these three very different and interesting cities. Late March is a really good time to go (maybe we were just lucky) as we had lots of sunshine and most days were in the mid 60's. Excellent weather combined with manageable crowds made for a very rewarding experience.

I attended with Charles, whose comments are below. I agree with his opening comment; “Perfect introduction to Italy, its art and its culture.” I also read thru all 40 of the comments to compare experience. Just like cars, where Y.M.M.V. – Your Mileage May Vary. Also know, each personal experience may be influenced by 2 key elements” Be Prepared – learned that after many years of work in Boy Scouts. 2. RS slogan: Adventures in Lifelong Learning. If you have expectations other than listed in program summary, you might be disappointed. I go back to Charles opening comment; “Perfect introduction to Italy, its art and its culture.” For us, that and much more. If interested, see my trip journal: http://2013-c2c-adventure.blogspot.com/

Perfect introduction to Italy, its art and its culture. NOT, howeever, to its food. Italian cuisine is one of the greatest on the world, but you wouldn't know it from the restaurants included in this tour.

Solo travelers beware: Room accommodations in all three cities are dreadful! All travelers beware: Food in Road Scholar-approved restaurants is also dreadful (in some cases uneatable)! The cities themselves are, of course, marvelous.

This was my 2nd trip with Road Scholar, and I thought it was wonderful! My rooms in all 3 cities were comfortable and clean. The food was delicious and more than plentiful; I chose vegetarian option and had lots of roasted veggies, salads, even a souffle one night. The program was a good balance between lectures and activities, and the professors and local guides were all top-notch. I enjoyed the other participants and found them friendly and welcoming (I was traveling by myself). All 3 cities were a bit more crowded than I had anticipated, but now I know why. Italy is a beautiful, fascinating country and well worth more than 1 visit. I am dreaming about my next trip there.

We had a great trip. It was our first Road Scholar trip, and we plan to use Road Scholar again. The organization of events, accommodations, and the quality of the guides and speakers were all top notch.

We must have been on a different trip then the ones described below. Our experience and a very important one is the number of miles walked per day. I checked and re-verified with R.S. that the average walking distance per day was 2 miles. The actual on our trip was 5 to 7 miles most days. A good deal done on cobblestone roads with little or no sidewalks and Vesper scooters just hoping to run you down.
The meals I thought were repetitious with no hope of a simple salad for lunch being offered. You walk into the room you sit down and out come the trays of food.
We found the Florence hotel to be very good and the Venice one horrible. Rome was good in our eyes but a number of our group found it lacking. Be prepared for miniature bathrooms if you are a big person with the bidet being the front and center item in all three places.
A very exhausting trip to say the least. I would rate it VERY ACTIVE.

Need Help?

The latest in light, portable, easy-to-use QUIETVOX listening devices are available on Road Scholar programs.* Whether you are outdoors, in a crowd or in a museum environment where speaking loudly is discouraged, a listening device makes it feel like our experts are speaking clearly and directly to you. Hear for yourself on a Road Scholar adventure!

*Please note that due to the nature of some programs, the remote location or government regulations, listening devices may not be available. If you’d like to know for sure if your program will offer listening devices, just call and ask an Advisor!